Three French restaurants capture the ultimate prize: Three Michelin stars
http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/News/2004...337263-ap.html
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Three restaurants have captured the Olympic gold of French gastronomy - three stars in the latest Michelin Red Guide - a reward one chef found easy to describe: "This is joy." </font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">All told, 27 restaurants now rank among the best there is in a category that Michelin describes as "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey . . . One will pay accordingly!"
One establishment - Les Crayeres in Reims in the heart of the champagne region - took a devastating hit, being demoted from three stars to two. The restaurant now shares a place with 66 others on the two-star list.
"We have a lot of motivation and we'll win the third star back," said Les Crayeres chef Thierry Voisin. He said the restaurant had been prepared for bad news because of the retirement last year of master chef Gerard Boyer.
While two-star restaurants still feature some of the best cooking offered anywhere (what Michelin calls "excellent cooking, worth a detour") the loss of a star can be brutal to a restaurant's bottom line and a chef's morale. </font>
Michelin Giveth Stars and Taketh Away
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/11/dining/11MICH.html
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">THE new Michelin guide will award a third star to three restaurants in France and demote one restaurant to two stars.
Les Loges de l'Aubergade in Puymirol, in southwest France, a place of refined rusticity that specializes in the truffle-infused cooking of Michel Trama, its chef and owner, was elevated from two stars to three in the guide, which will be published on Feb. 27. </font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Last year, to avoid rumors, the guide, whose restaurant ratings are the most respected in Europe, began announcing the star ratings before publication of the book.
The suicide of Bernard Loiseau last year publicized the pressures chefs feel over the ratings. Mr. Loiseau's restaurant, the Hôtel de la Côte d'Or, was downgraded in the Gault-Millau guide, and there were suggestions that it would lose one of its three Michelin stars. It did not.</font>